The way I see it, and others may think otherwise, is that a wood gas ran vehicle is no different than any other vehicle. I see no reason why I need to tell an insurance agent that any of our vehicles run off of firewood no more than I feel the need to tell them that someone’s vehicle might be gasoline, diesel, or electric. The second that an insurance agent thinks that you’re putting a fire near the gas tank of a vehicle they start to let their minds run wild.
Unfortunately because most people don’t understand wood gasification as well as they used to it causes a fear of the unknown. One wrong way of wording it, and a insurance agent might think you’re building the next Hindenburg. It’s a shame too, I truly hope one day people will learn about what gasification again and the fear of the unknown be removed one day.
I agree with Thomas. One of the DOW guys had his truck shut down by insurance companies in Canada. Nobody would cover his vehicle.
If it goes on record, then the IRS or FDA will want to jump down your throat. Claiming things like fuel tax evasion, or untrue claims of air pollution with smoke.
One big reason why there aren’t any well known vehicle conversion guys that build one for a customer.
Easier to not care about it being done for generators or tractors. Off-road fuel isn’t taxed at the pump. Watch what happens when a DOT guy pulls over someone in their Duramax and they find the pink off-road agricultural diesel in the tank. This is another reason why I only do Inspection Exempt vehicles, though I do experiment with my newer GMC. Junky old truck with junk in the back, nobody bats an eye.
But to stay on topic I hope to make it to this meetup, woodgas fueled or not. I have the Paid Time Off this year.
Yeah insurance angents dont know how to deal with things that dont fall into there boxes they can check.
I dont have a local insurance agent. Ive used usaa for years. Called them the other day to ask them what their policy is for how close an outdoor wood boiler can be to a structure.
Well it was a feet just to get a real person on the phone.
Im not sure where they are based out of… but the guy didnt have a clue what i was talking about. Even after explaning it to him he didnt understand how or why a fire outside could heat a house.
He finally said well it will be covered just like the ac unit would be. And as far as distance, follow ur local building codes.
Bet u anything that wouldnt hold up if i ever had a clame.
I agree with thomas, cody, and chris , wayne had menchened that he had ask for theft insurence, and had no probley, not saying it was or had fire in the box- maybe could add it in in that fasion, though it dident work the second time i ask about the theft insuence, so as you all mechened,or like cody menchened,blened in with junk and sraps hear an there, sounds good, i am building a light weight topper with semi open top and mostly open floor, with just a spot washer and a dryer, with tailgate down- anther couple days, its testing time, if its too hot in summer, i have built the topper two peice, so i can uncover the cooling rack in summer if needed. maybe drive it too the meetup, motor sounds good and smooth.
Well I can’t find out how to find my gasifier build , so I guess I post the main view from the back of my Dakota, I am keeping the outside photo, not published.
. the floor is open other than the floor panel in this picture, I will see if I need more air ducking up from bottom,or remove the back half of the topper, I plan on insulating the hopper a d heat exchanger, to hold heat away from hopper cooler,and the main cooling rail.I MIGHT make this my winter truck, and build a charco unit for my ponitac vibe or another small vehicle.THE heat exchanger muffler and glass pack sounds nice and not too loud.
Hey Kevin here is how to find your gasifier building topic:
Click once on your avatar picture at the top of your last post. This will bring up a mini-window on you.
Then click on your avatar picture on that. That will bring up a full page of stats on your activities. Part way down on that; on the left hand side; will be an info link showing you have started 77 Topics.
Click that open for a listing of your own started topics.
Ha! Then YOU select which one you wanted to post your current building activity onto.
Once on that topic before you click off of it go to the right hand slide bar and click it’s bottom last post opened up.
At the bottom of that topic stream will be a function button “Tracking”. You need to click it opened up and make sure you will be getting notifications of yours and others posts onto that topic.
Mysteriously I’ve found now a couple of topics I want to follow had been set as Muted. They then disappeared to me.
THANKS STEVE-I found my build thread-clicking on my wood chunker picture from my last post. I probley got enough pics up for now, so at leiste i found the thread, i should have labled my build a little shorter.
I moved the rest of the pics to my build thread/ 99 Dakota rear frame build in the non WK projects, well the internals are mostly WK other than I used an insulated burn tube to see how long it last before it melts away from the heat without the heat stableizer jacket from the book.
Few days ago I sent in the insurance proposal to the fairgrounds manager.
She sent it out to the fair board, and a few other relevant people via email, asking if they had any issues or concerns
She called me.a couple hours ago to tell me that she’s not gotten any denial replies, and hasn’t heard from anyone in terms of concerns.
So unless something pops up in the next week or so, she says that everything seems to be pretty well worked through. The insurance proposal was the last thing they were waiting to make sure about
I have completely rewritten the first post (to @MikeR 's chagrin, sorry Mike!) and converted this to the official thread for the Kentucky Woodgas Meetup! Please read the very first post again, although it’s mostly compiled from @TheIrishEngineer 's posts, I tried to consolidate info in an easy to read format. This is the place to send a link for interested folks wanting to attend. 2024 Kentucky Woodgas Meetup
On that form is a question who would be interested in a shirt, we usually sell a bunch to folks who attend. I’ll take charge of this years’ shirts, and a separate thread will be posted when the time comes. I’m just gauging interest at this point.
Thanks to all the contributors above and let’s make this meetup a massive success! See you there!
@TheIrishEngineer What’s the official name of the campground? I’ve heard it called fairgrounds, 4H, RV and camp, and Sand Hills. Straighten me out so I can put the right name at the top. Thanks!
Ron and Ronda Lemler just stopped by our place on their way home from Florida. They got the 50 cent tour of our homestead, and Ronda handed off the Argos meetup paperwork and remaining funds from last year. I will take over as treasurer for the event.
Thanks for coming by Lemlers! Hope to see you all at Whitley City.
I didn’t want to make a whole post about it, but it felt important to give a notice . At 10pm Tuesday my father passed away. I found him in his bed. It looks like he fell asleep and just didn’t wake up. I’ll do what I can to make sure the fairgrounds and insurance is taken care of, but I have a lot of things I’ll need to start moving around now
